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Is America's last cheap minivan worth it?

Take a good look at this beauty. Because once she's gone there may be no turning back. The minivan market has been completely decimated over the past fifteen years. I could list all the former brands (dead and alive) that once formed the lynchpin of parenthood for this inherently conservative market. But that would involve at least fourteen commas, three sets of parentheses, and possibly even one 2000s-style recount. Back then, middle-class America loved these people-movers and even the well-to-do were glad to load them up with unique luxuries such as power sliding doors, captain's chairs, integrated child seats, and DVD players that entombed cacophonous kids into a temporary silence. Back in the '90s, the minivan market regularly realized well over a million sold units a year. In 2000, minivans finally hit their familial peak of 1.4 million vehicles in a year with the help of two top-20 bestsellers: the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country. Today the minivan just isn't popular. This year it'll likely represent only a half-million in annual sales, with not a single minivan hitting America's top 30 in overall volume. But as I always tell folks, "If you want a deal, you have to hit 'em where they ain't." So you want a cheap and affordable minivan for cash money that isn't a 15-year-old Plymouth in purple? Does it have to be new? Really? Well, if you're married to that type of person, this Grand Caravan with the American Value Package is the cheapest thing going. Deals can also be had on the mini-minivan Mazda5, but since it's been discontinued due to low demand, let's focus on the still-popular Chrysler minivan. The cost for this 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan according to TrueCar is right around $19,500 depending on where you live in the USA. But let's take a look at the 2015 models instead since they tend to have even stronger discounts during the wintertime thanks to manufacturers and dealers who are busy shoveling out all this older inventory. If you opt for a 2015 model instead, you're looking at a market price right around $17,800 and luckily these minivans are still sitting in multitude. Wanna click those rebate and incentive buttons? If you currently lease or finance a FIAT or Chrysler product, have AAA coverage, and finance the car with FCA, you can make off like the proverbial bandit for a price of only $15,229 before the dealer inflicts their bogus fee money dance.

The Dodge Demon's massive torque wrinkles its massive tires

Horsepower doesn't mean a damn thing if a car can't properly put the power down. That's why Dodge has fitted the upcoming Demon with some of the stickiest road-legal rubber available. Those Demon-branded Nitto NT05R drag radials skirt by regulations with just the smallest of margins, and in order to maximize the potential of the 315/40R 18 size tires Dodge increased the car's torque multiplication with a higher stall speed for the torque converter and a 3.09 rear axle. The 12.6-inch-wide tires are fitted to 18x11-inch wheels at all four corners, and they're fatter than those 305-section front tires on the Camaro Z/28 that we raved about years ago. Dodge says the combination of soft, gooey rubber and the new gear ratio gives the Demon about a 15 percent larger tire contact patch, more than twice as much grip, and roughly an 18 percent increase in both converter torque and rear-axle torque multiplication. Simply put, the Dodge Demon moves. You can see the results in the teaser video above, which is titles "Multiplication" and shows the crazy wrinkling of the sidewall that results from putting that torque to the road. We wouldn't be surprised if the inner rim of the wheel needs some grip to keep the tire seated, something Chevy had to do on the last Z/28. There is something wonderful about Dodge's approach to performance cars. While the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro have moved on from their muscle car upbringings with proper track-focused models, Dodge has stayed true to its roots by developing a machine that's sole intent is traveling a quarter-mile quicker than anything else on the road. Twisty roads may be fun, but there is something wholly and deeply satisfying about going deep into the accelerator with a comical amount of power at your disposal. We can't wait. Related Video: New York Auto Show Dodge Coupe Performance dodge demon dodge hellcat dodge challenger srt demon drag strip

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Plymouth Voyager Turbo

There was a time when the word "TURBO" was king, and even Detroit minivans came with nervous, hair-drier-boosted engines and screaming TURBO badging. Why, some of them even had manual transmissions (sadly, not this van) and in the case of the 1990 Plymouth Voyager Turbo I spotted in a Denver self-service wrecking yard, a lysergic purple paint plus a Bordello Red interior. The first-generation Voyager minivan (not to be confused with the full-sized B-series Voyager van that preceded it) was a tremendous smash hit for Chrysler. Because it came from the K-Car platform, most of the powertrain options available for other members of the many-branched K Family Tree— from the Mitsubishi Astron to the Chrysler turbo 2.5— went into the Voyagers, Caravans, and Town & Countries. The turbocharged 2.5-liter four, rated at 150 horsepower, was an option for the 1989 and 1990 Voyagers. That doesn't sound like much today, an era in which the Voyager's descendants churn out close to 300 horses, but it was lunacy for a front-wheel-drive family hauler that weighed just over 3,000 pounds. And people eventually discovered they could be made far faster than stock. Voyager shoppers could get five-speed manual transmissiona with their Turbo 2.5 engines, though few did. Still, there were more Voyagers and Caravans with the 5-speed than you might think, in part because of the manual transmission's lower cost. The slushbox didn't conquer the Chrysler Corporation Minivan World until 1996. Nissan probably had the most vividly red interiors of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but Chrysler didn't lag far behind. Look at these acres of shiny red plastic and tough, red I Can't Believe It's Not Velour! Because minivans remain useful for decades, most of them have high odometer readings by the time they get junked. So at a little over 115,000 miles, this one may have had a busted speedometer cable. Speedometers reading better than 85 mph were legal after 1981, but perhaps Chrysler decided not to encourage lead-footed hoonery among minivan drivers. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Auntie Entity pitching "the best-loved minivan in the world." Featured Gallery Junked 1990 Plymouth Voyager Turbo View 19 Photos Auto News Chrysler Dodge Automotive History Minivan/Van dodge caravan